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I am an absolute failure. I have not lost 1 inch.
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GiftedHealth wrote: »Do you guys make prep meals for seven days a week or just prep meals for five days a week?
Should I count my vegetable snacks in my chloric intake? What kind of vegetable snacks do you eat?
Log everything. Absolutely everything. Over time you can slack off on that a bit (I still log everything, but I'm a bit loose with amounts for non-starchy veg, pickles, low calorie condiments etc), but when you start it's the only way to get a true idea of how much you're eating, what needs to be tweaked, and it's a great way to have complete pictures of previous days where you can see what worked.
Say you have a few days where you stick to your calorie goal, feel good, are satisfied and happy. A couple weeks later, you're feeling a bit dissatisfied, struggling a little - being able to go back to the week where you were feeling good and being able to see a full picture of what you were eating then is SO helpful to get back on track and make sure you're feeling satisfied. The diary isn't just a calculator, it's a record.8 -
Meal prepping is a personal choice - not something neccesary for losing weight or using MFP or calorie counting.
Helpful for many people - but may be or may be not for you.
But yes to logging everything - as said above, definitely i n the beginning or if you are struggling.
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@GiftedHealth You need to do what works for you.
Everything other than water has calories and you should log everything that you eat and drink.
Take care1 -
Thanks for your replies, everyone.
I have a few more questions if you don’t mind.
How do you log your food if you’re eating out?
Do you create your own logs with weighing the food from your own scale and use that instead of what’s in MFP?
Do you use the premium version of this app or the free version?
I feel absolutely horrible like I’m drugged today and I gave in and benched yesterday. I guess that’s why I’m feeling so horrible.1 -
The free version does everything I need, so I've never paid for premium. But it depends on what your needs are? I'd try the free version first and see how that works for you.
As for eating out: depending on the food, I'll usually take one of these approaches:
- deconstruct the meal in my mind and log approximate amounts of those ingredients (generous estimate of cooking fat/oil for restaurant food 😉 )
- look up a similar dish from a large restaurant chain
- if I've made a similar dish myself, I'll use that as a starting point (adding cooking fat/oil if it's a restaurant meal)3 -
Some of what I'm about to write will seem complex and daunting. Be aware that it's now things I do, after a long period of using MFP, and I didn't do all of it every time from day one. Rather, my habits have gradually evolved toward greater accuracy but balanced with greater ease.
For example, if I eat out only once a week or something, a reasonable estimate is likely good enough. If I eat out every day or nearly, then figuring out how to be more accurate for restaurant food is more important.
My advice would be to focus on the big-impact items or areas first, not try to instantly master every last detail. That "must be perfect immediately" idea is part of what can make the process feel overwhelming from some people.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like both logging consistently (every thing, every day) and logging accurately (food scale, for example) have been a struggle for you.
Personally, I think the consistency - logging everything you eat and drink - is a higher priority than getting every little estimated food to the Nth degree of precision. Accuracy is important, but you can dial that in. Simply logging everything in a practical, workable manner will be a big step.
Logging consistently is IMO essential if a person is to succeed with calorie counting (while also noting that calorie counting isn't the only weight loss method that can work - but if it's the method a person wants to use, they should use it, not use it some time and skip it other times). Logging accurately is a learning process, and learning processes aren't instant. It can - it will - improve with time and experience.
So, what I wrote below is some of the things I do to be more accurate, things I've learned over literal years of logging, to make things easier and more accurate for me, not things I think you or anyone else must do . . . ever, let alone immediately. If something seems helpful, great. If it seems overwhelming, skip it for now, or even forever.
In addition to Lietchi's good advice:GiftedHealth wrote: »Thanks for your replies, everyone.
I have a few more questions if you don’t mind.
How do you log your food if you’re eating out?
- In the US, large chain restaurants are required to make calorie information available. Usually it's easy to find online. It won't be exact, because individual cooks in the chains may use a heaping scoop or scant scoop of something, more oil or less on the grill, or things like that. It should be close enough.
- For a non-chain restaurant, sometimes I find a similar dish in a chain restaurant, and use that estimate.
- Absolutely only when it's polite and can be done discreetly, I might snap a photo of my food (no flash!), putting something standard-sized in the photo for scale, such as a fork's tines. Later, that photo can help me log the food with better quantity estimates.
I don't really understand the question.Do you create your own logs with weighing the food from your own scale and use that instead of what’s in MFP?
If I'm eating a food with a label, and there's an entry in the MFP database already that matches the label nutrition/calories, I'd use that entry. If there isn't one that's sufficiently accurate in ways I care about, I'd create an entry in My Foods.
If I'm eating a whole food (like fruits, veggies, plain meat/fish), I'd do a similar thing as for labeled products, but check the USDA FoodData Central database (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/) to get reasonably accurate data, then use a matching MFP entry if there is one, or create one in My Foods if I don't find one already there.
For sure, if I'm making a recipe or multi-ingredient meal, I log specifically how I made that food whenever possible: The individual food ingredients I used, in the quantities I used them. Example: If I make cheese lasagna, I log the lasagna noodles, the bottled tomato sauce brand (or the tomatoes, herbs, etc. if I make my own), the specific types of cheese I actually used and brands where relevant, etc. I would not use someone else's MFP database entry for "cheese lasagna" because recipes can differ by hundreds of calories per serving for "the same" dish.Do you use the premium version of this app or the free version?
I used free MFP while losing weight, and for quite a while in the early stages of maintenance. I have premium now, but always advise new people to start out with free MFP, since the basics are the same, and it lets them decide whether the process works for them before spending money. The only exceptions would be someone who feels they really require some feature that's only available in premium for a specialized case, or someone who only takes things seriously if they've put money on the table. Otherwise, I recommend using free to start, deciding later if any of the premium features are useful enough to an individual to pay for them, since they'll understand the features and their needs better with some experience.I feel absolutely horrible like I’m drugged today and I gave in and benched yesterday. I guess that’s why I’m feeling so horrible.
I'm sorry you're feeling horrible: Maybe take it easy, get some extra rest, drink enough water, eat something tasty/nutritious to revitalize yourself? Best wishes!3 -
my meal preps depend on what I make. I enter all of the components in the recipe section and divide the total into a reasonable quantity. That is generally 8 servings. But sometimes more. sometimes less. I don't mind eating the same thing but lately I've been prepping two different meals and storing part of it in the freezer. I pad the calories with lettuce and cucumbers or zucchini.1
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Absolutely only when it's polite and can be done discreetly, I might snap a photo of my food (no flash!), putting something standard-sized in the photo for scale, such as a fork's tines. Later, that photo can help me log the food with better quantity estimates.
Further to this good point - I sometimes wrote down - discretely on small notepad or in my phone's notes- the items on the plate - and sometimes (in Australia anyway) steaks and such have a weight amount on the menu
Making notes also reminds me to add things like a dinner roll or chocolate biscuit included with the coffee or suchlike that I might forget when logging afterwards5 -
Is Rubbermaid safe for food prepping and heating foods in?0
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GiftedHealth wrote: »Is Rubbermaid safe for food prepping and heating foods in?
Yes, it's a good brand.1 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »GiftedHealth wrote: »Is Rubbermaid safe for food prepping and heating foods in?
Yes, it's a good brand.
Great. Even for heating?
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GiftedHealth wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »GiftedHealth wrote: »Is Rubbermaid safe for food prepping and heating foods in?
Yes, it's a good brand.
Great. Even for heating?
If they're the ones that are made for heating, yes, they're fine. Basically, they're a brand that you can trust to safely do whatever they claim they do.1 -
GiftedHealth wrote: »Is Rubbermaid safe for food prepping and heating foods in?
I think so, but I prefer tempered glass like Pyrex or Anchor. They're more expensive to buy, but last longer and can be used in a regular oven in addition to microwave, including going straight from freezer to microwave without any issue. The ones with snap-on plastic lids are good for packed lunches, though I admit a bit heavier than plastic like Rubbermaid.1 -
I was going to return the rubber maid and get glass, but I lost the receipt. The Rubbermaid says I could put it in the microwave but without the plastic lid. I’ll eventually get glass containers and use those.0
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Why do I always always always binge when I feel I am making a breakthrough when it comes to eating right to lose weight. Every single time I say to myself I will allow myself this one last binge and start eating right tomorrow!!!!!1
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Only you can answer that.
Some ideas - don't go t o places where you can eat more - ie only eat out at places that you get set amount, no all you can eat's.
Dont have foods at home that you tend to binge on - if it is not in the house you probably wont bother getting the car, driving to the shop etc.1 -
paperpudding wrote: »Only you can answer that.
Some ideas - don't go t o places where you can eat more - ie only eat out at places that you get set amount, no all you can eat's.
Dont have foods at home that you tend to binge on - if it is not in the house you probably wont bother getting the car, driving to the shop etc.
Thanks for your reply. The problem is, the food is not in the house. I drive to clear my head and that’s when I go to places to binge.
Today is a new day. I purchased vegetables last night that I will clean today to eat as snacks.
I will also learn to weight foods and use my scale.2 -
I think the main thing is to find the root cause of your binges:
- is it because you feel restricted in how much and/or what you can eat? Then the key would be to reevaluate your strategy: gradual changes instead of big ones/choosing a slower rate of loss/...
- or is there a deeper (emotional) cause? It can be interesting to think about what losing weight would mean to you and if there were perhaps emotional reasons that caused you to become overweight. And then tackle the underlying cause. To give an extreme example, someone who has experienced sexual abuse might be afraid of getting more attention from other people when they have lost weight and will subconsciously sabotage themselves because of it. Some people have been overweight for so long that it has become their identity (for example: being the cheerful overweight one in a group of friends) and they worry about who they really are when they're no longer overweight. Sometimes food habits are linked to social relationships and a person can worry about losing friends because of it. Sometimes people get stressed easily and a person is used to coping with that stress through food. Depending on the cause, the solution could be: finding alternative coping strategies for stress, journaling, therapy,...7 -
dieting is not hard. Yes you have to pick foods in the store that are within your meal plan. But you should never be hungry, even on a 1200 calorie a day diet with exercise, because there are plenty of nutritious foods to eat that will fit into that 1200. And that will nourish your body a lot more than empty sugar filled carb filled junk.
It is true it can take a few days to wean yourself off sugar, and that may require you having some will power. After that, the urge to eat carbs should lessen. If it comes back, exercise is a remedy. Take a walk. Don't get in the car and drive to get junk.
Once you are weaned off sugar, all it takes is commitment to keep going. Only you can give yourself that, and it is more fulfilling than a bunch of sugary junk. Only you can take care of yourself and nourish yourself appropriately. And hold yourself accountable. All the advice on logging is useless if *you don't log*. You need to log even on the days that you break your diet, because in logging you are holding yourself accountable and letting yourself see what you have done to nourish yourself, aid, or sabotage your goals. Be accountable to yourself.
Remember sugar is poison. Don't put poison in your body. Consider it like arsenic, which ladies used to take in tiny doses to give themselves a little bloom. A little may be okay. More is poison. You will be heading for diabetes if you don't stop eating junk. Tell yourself that before the next binge. You aren't a child anymore and your body is less forgiving as it ages. So take care of yourself, because however nice it might be to get encouragement and sympathy in this thread, it is useless if you don't take care of yourself. It is your primary job. We can't do it for you. You must take care of yourself.2 -
GiftedHealth wrote: »Why do I always always always binge when I feel I am making a breakthrough when it comes to eating right to lose weight. Every single time I say to myself I will allow myself this one last binge and start eating right tomorrow!!!!!
Good practical advice and insights from those above.
This comment is a little more squishy, about self-definition and mindset.
You say "why do I always always always binge". That way of thinking holds the seeds of "it will happen again", almost like a prediction.
If you can, talk to yourself in a different way:
"In the past, I have binged. I'm working to change that."
"How do I avoid binging" . . . or at minimum, "how can I binge less often", or "how can a binge be smaller".
You "allow yourself that one last binge" . . . that's a decision. If there's anything you absolutely control, it's your own decisions.
Afterward, it seems like you beat yourself up psychologically for binging. How does that change the past, or improve either the current moment or the future? I think it doesn't. The over-eating episode is water under the bridge, past history, can't be changed. Only the present and future can be changed. Focus there.
My suggestion would be to spend a very limited defined amount of time - ten minutes, say - thinking about what triggered the over-eating, why it happened . . . and what to do instead of over-eating next time similar triggers occur.
It might even be a good idea to make a handwritten list of things to do instead of over-eating, change your plan to look at that list every time you have that "allow yourself to binge" impulse. Maybe commit to do one of the things on your list while rethinking the decision to over-eat.
Change the script. (Handwriting that kind of list vs. typing is important, BTW . . . it engages more of our attention in what we're writing, sinks in more. If you need to keep it on your computer, snap a photo of the list and store that.)
Also, turn on the light of truth: Log the over-eating to the best of your ability, even if you have to estimate. Log every bit of it, every time. It happened. Not logging it doesn't un-happen it. It has a calorie impact. (Sometimes people post here after being persuaded to log over-eating, and have discovered it wasn't the massive life-altering, progress-destroying magnitude their imagination had inflated it into - sure, over goal, maybe over maintenance, maybe delayed reaching goal weight by a couple of days, but not the horror they thought. That can help us make those incidents lose power to derail or discourage us.)
None of us is perfect. We'll have good days and bad days. Positive progress occurs when we gradually have more good days, fewer bad days. Fortunately, improving doesn't require instant perfection: If it did, no one would ever improve. It requires intention, commitment, persistence, patience. Keep going, do better by steps.
You can do this.5 -
The fact, that many fail to realize, is that you can't lose weight to get back to eating the way you used to.
You can't eat the way you used to. You will never be able to eat the way you used to. Period. Unless you want to stay where you are. Permanently.
Yes you can budget treats, in limitation, in your diet. But you can't eat junk in quantity any more.
If you don't change that mindset, you will not lose weight.
When I started to diet in October, I had a friend who wanted to diet with me. But she cheated, basically every day. And said, "how can I not have Halloween candy, how can I not have pie and whipped cream at thanksgiving, How can I not have Christmas cookies and candy and ice cream at Christmas, and recently, how can I not have girl scout cookies? She hasn't lost anything. Every week it is a new start every week a new reason or excuse to cheat. For all these months, I've offered sympathy, encouragement, etc. But it gets old because the mindset has to change. If you want to lose weight you have to stop the self indulgent, self excuses, buckle down and make a commitment to do it.
It's for your own health. No one can do this for you.
But that's a good thing. Because it means you are *solely in charge* to change your life. And if you are serious, you will.
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Thanks for your reply. The problem is, the food is not in the house. I drive to clear my head and that’s when I go to places to binge.
Don't take any cash or cards in the car then.
Walk to clear your head instead then- keeping to a route away from stores.
I know that is simplistic and posters have given thoughts on delving deeper into why you are binging - but i n the meantime take simple steps to break the habit.
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Then you aren't driving to clear your head. You are driving to go and binge.5
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When I started to diet in October, I had a friend who wanted to diet with me. But she cheated, basically every day. And said, "how can I not have Halloween candy, how can I not have pie and whipped cream at thanksgiving, How can I not have Christmas cookies and candy and ice cream at Christmas, and recently, how can I not have girl scout cookies? She hasn't lost anything. Every week it is a new start every week a new reason or excuse to cheat. For all these months, I've offered sympathy, encouragement, etc. But it gets old because the mindset has to change. If you want to lose weight you have to stop the self indulgent, self excuses, buckle down and make a commitment to do it.
IMO she would be better off building 'cheating' into her plan then -and I put it in inverted commas because it wouldn't be cheating then.
Rather planning to have a small treat daily or a larger treat, say weekly or twice weekly, that fits into your calorie allowance
It is possible to fit a couple of cookies or pie and ice cream or whatever into your calorie allowance, not everything every day and not huge amounts but small amounts less frequently - rather then view sugar as poison, view it as something to be allowed in portion controlled amounts.Yes you can budget treats, in limitation, in your diet. But you can't eat junk in quantity any more.
Which I see you agree with, as quoted above - but perhaps I am just spelling it out for OP.
If your binging is related to over denial and having one or tw o cookies would help you rather than having none at all and then over compensating by eating a whole packet.1 -
paperpudding wrote: »When I started to diet in October, I had a friend who wanted to diet with me. But she cheated, basically every day. And said, "how can I not have Halloween candy, how can I not have pie and whipped cream at thanksgiving, How can I not have Christmas cookies and candy and ice cream at Christmas, and recently, how can I not have girl scout cookies? She hasn't lost anything. Every week it is a new start every week a new reason or excuse to cheat. For all these months, I've offered sympathy, encouragement, etc. But it gets old because the mindset has to change. If you want to lose weight you have to stop the self indulgent, self excuses, buckle down and make a commitment to do it.
IMO she would be better off building 'cheating' into her plan then -and I put it in inverted commas because it wouldn't be cheating then.
Rather planning to have a small treat daily or a larger treat, say weekly or twice weekly, that fits into your calorie allowance
It is possible to fit a couple of cookies or pie and ice cream or whatever into your calorie allowance, not everything every day and not huge amounts but small amounts less frequently - rather then view sugar as poison, view it as something to be allowed in portion controlled amounts.Yes you can budget treats, in limitation, in your diet. But you can't eat junk in quantity any more.
Which I see you agree with, as quoted above - but perhaps I am just spelling it out for OP.
If your binging is related to over denial and having one or tw o cookies would help you rather than having none at all and then over compensating by eating a whole packet.
Certainly. I usually build have latitude in my intake, where I have a few hundred calories at the end of the day, and I have designated treats. Sometimes it is 2 sugar free Russell Stover chocolates. Sometimes it is a half of a PBJ, which is my favorite treat. But that has carbs so I have to be careful as I am watching my blood sugar. Sugar free gelatin and cucumbers are snacks, as are a few peanuts. I have nothing against eating sugar, if you can, so long as it is in plan with your diet. Even if you go over a little the calories you have planned to eat, and still have some exercise calories, though I never use many of those exercise calories, so I stay in a deficit, there's no real harm in that.
If you can't control your sugar intake, and one cookie is going to lead to a full scale binge, then go for sugar free treats.
As for my friend, she has not been realistic in her intake of treats, and hasn't lost any weight in months, so she's not doing that. I've told her what I do, I've made suggestions for treats that might help her stay on track. She doesn't like the suggestions as to treats that I've made. Of course everyone has their own thing that they like, but you have to make SOME plan for what you will go for. And she wants to lose and lose big, i.e., like 2 pounds a week, which doesn't leave a lot of latitude. So she basically ends up starting anew each week or so. I've sort of given up since nothing I suggest is acceptable.
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So, how is it going?
did you find the rubbermaid containers helpful for taking in veggies and choosing meals?
Are you logging every day? Weighing or measuring yourself to track your progress?
Staying away from junk food and not binging?
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thanks for asking!
I know this is going to be an excuse, but me traveling to work one hour there one hour back when I get home. I’m so exhausted that I put everything aside for now so I haven’t really done anything.
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and I’m happy to report that my belt buckle is getting loser. :). :)
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A diet of sugar and carbs will leave you tired, when the sugar rush falls off. And hungry. When you are in a fast food place, avoid the donuts and danishes, and other carby foods. Go for an egg wrap, or a sandwich, with protein, and you might feel fuller, have fewer desires to binge, and be less tired.
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I know this is going to be an excuse, but me traveling to work one hour there one hour back when I get home. I’m so exhausted that I put everything aside for now so I haven’t really done anything.
Is your work commute going to change i n the near future?
If not, you are going to have to find a way to do this in your current situation - like all of us do.
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